Discovering muscles

It sometimes amazes me at how much I actually don't mind... dare I even say, like.... going to the gym these days. I think part of it is how I know I am finally able to make progress instead of it constantly being an exercise in futility.

As of 2 weeks post-op, I was cleared to lift weights. I thought that was a little too soon, so I waited until week 4. Now that I'm almost 6 weeks out, I have really started to try to lift smart so I can see progress without building too much muscle. I need to tone. And, frankly, I am a little worried about having bat wings. My legs have always been kind of muscular, and certainly now are becoming more defined. But my arms are quite another sad, sad story. So I've been lifting weights, alternating between upper and lower body. Yesterday, Gerald said he could feel the muscles in my shoulders. I didn't believe him until he showed me. LOL And even then, it sure was a foreign feel to my fingers. Another interesting thing I discovered this morning was soreness in my inner thighs. Yesterday was a lower body workout day and I did the adductor/abductor machine with increasing weights with each set. It's a technique described in Body-for-LIFE. This morning when I went to get out of my chair at work, I noticed I was sore, and it came as a surprise. It's not the kind of soreness where I was in pain, but the good kind where I could feel it and be mindful that I had exercised.

All this really does surprise and amaze me. I can't wait to be down to 200 pounds! Because that's my goal for starting to run again. I ran the half marathon in 2001 and weighed 230 when I did. I want to be able to start out running at a lower weight than I've seen in the last 20 years and then go from there. I remember what it felt like to be that fit and I so desperately want to get back to that feeling. There was nothing in this world like it. And maybe one day I'll be fast enough to run with the likes of my friends Donna or Sherry.

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?